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sj-roc wrote:Lions have begun their 2014 season ticket selling campaign with an email to STHs today. Given that there is a Dec 11 deadline to lock in renewals at 2013 prices, it seems clear that ticket prices will otherwise increase yet again in 2014.
According to their 2014 seating chart, the upper deck will be further tarped off next year with the only available seating being the first five rows (those below the concourse access) between the goal lines above the Lions' bench. At this stage the economy-priced family and tailgate sections appear not to be in the works for next year but these could be rolled out again in due course. As it stands now, capacity with this configuration should be somewhere around 30k.
Love to see them go with the Whitecaps sellout logic. Tarp off giant areas of the stadium and then call it a sellout if what isn't tarped gets sold......
I think I'm going to give the next Grey Cup here in Vancouver a miss. I love watching the Grey Cup (usually on TV) but IF I am going to shell out big bucks to see another Grey Cup, I think I'd rather do it in another stadium. I love our stadium. I love the Grey Cup festival. I got spoiled last time. I shelled out early and then was left wondering what did I do, when the Lions started 1-5. We all know how that ended so I don't know how it can be topped.
Seeing a Grey Cup in the new Bomber stadium or the Hamilton/Rider/Redblack stadiums that are coming on board in the near future seems like a better option for me. Story and fan-wise it was the best Grey Cup I have ever seen in person (the other was a Toronto/Edm matchup in the 80's). However, football wise, in terms of the actual games themselves, I enjoyed the Vanier Cup @ BC Place more. Don't get me wrong, watching BC win, here, after that season start, was awesome. I just didn't see the game itself as one of those Grey Cup Classics, IMO...........
Actually isn't that the early 2000's BC Lions sellout logic? We used to close off the upper bowl LONG before the Whitecaps did.
Its kind of sad to see after all the progress we made that we have to go back to that, kind of sucks. We were getting crowds in the mid 30,000's at the old BC Place. Its so strange. New Stadium you would think more people would show up not less. Its way better in there now, a beautiful stadium.
We were easily averaging well into the 30,000's for awhile, I remember going to the Saskatchewan game where there was 38,000+ there.
Maybe they can build the interest back up again. I think Empire lost a lot of fans for us due to the limited capacity and the teams we were fielding at the same time. Probably was crazy to expect all those fans to come back after 2 seasons in a smaller building. Hopefully they come back again.
Looking at the ticket sales today.......I'm not surprised tho.....I'd be surprised if 25,000 are even there. They should really offer up the 25 dollar sections next year though, I will be buying some of those the rest of the way just haven't yet. I can't afford anything more than that though, its just too much when I used to get 40 dollar tickets for 2 at the old BC place, I really think that's where a lot of sales came from in the past.
vanhalendlrband wrote:Actually isn't that the early 2000's BC Lions sellout logic? We used to close off the upper bowl LONG before the Whitecaps did......
Sellout logic? NOPE! The Lions NEVER CLAIMED SELLOUTS EVEN THOUGH AN ENTIRE BOWL WAS EMPTY. The Whitecaps throw up elaborate curtains and call it a sellout. If there are empty seats, its not a sellout. Whether you use tarps or curtains or block off an entire upper bowl....ITS NOT A SELLOUT IMO.
The idea behind this way to get a sell out is simple. The smaller the venue, the scarcer the tickets. If you don't want to step up and be a seasons ticket holder then you take your chances you can get per game tickets and even worse - any chance of a play off ticket.
It is try and mimic in BC PLace the Canucks problem where hockey arenas are not that big and the tight seating capacity produces a lot more revenue per seat.
Restricting seating to a lower bowl format only means less staff hired for the game which reduces costs for the stadium and the team.
Fans have to be careful what they wish for or be prepped to pay a far greater price per ticket.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
I get why the Whitecaps do it and the Lions have done it in the past. This is exactly why stats are just that tools to tell the story you want told. Do the Whitecaps play at over 90% capacity due to tarping off the upperbowl. They say yes, I say no. It makes sense what they do, the costs are lower but ITS NOT A SELLOUT, IMO.
Based on percentage of venue sold are the Canucks number one? Maybe, I'm not sure how the Canadians did this year. Based on actual tickets sold are the Lions not number one? I guess, but as stated hockey arenas hold less people.....
vanhalendlrband wrote:Actually isn't that the early 2000's BC Lions sellout logic? We used to close off the upper bowl LONG before the Whitecaps did......
Sellout logic? NOPE! The Lions NEVER CLAIMED SELLOUTS EVEN THOUGH AN ENTIRE BOWL WAS EMPTY. The Whitecaps throw up elaborate curtains and call it a sellout. If there are empty seats, its not a sellout. Whether you use tarps or curtains or block off an entire upper bowl....ITS NOT A SELLOUT IMO.
Of course the Lions never claimed sellouts — well... almost never* — because even with the various reduced capacity configurations, we still didn't sell every available ticket.
*I recall one game in 2003, the season finale versus Saskatchewan, that WAS billed as a sellout of 29,706 when all lower bowl seats were sold while the entire upper deck remained fully closed. In 2004 we opened up part of the upper deck, pretty much same as the current format, but IIRC this didn't happen until about halfway through the season, possibly later. The 2003 closer is the only reg season game @BCP since the 1980s that could be claimed as a sellout in the sense that every available ticket was sold. I also recall Dan Russell (is he still around?) getting himself all worked up over the legitimacy of calling it a sellout.
On the basis of that one 2003 game, I'm pretty confident that, contrary to your claim, the Lions just like the Whitecaps, would readily proclaim SELLOUT for any game where all available tickets were sold — regardless of how many unused seats remained under tarps.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
I think I do recall that the upper bowl remained closed for most of the 2004 regular season, until the last home game, despite Caseymania leading to several 29k+ "sellouts" down the stretch (or near sellouts... it was often reported that there were barely any tickets left and would likely sellout which I think kept folks away). There was a fair bit of grumbling in the ticket lineups and the call-in shows about it, too, as there seems to be when the soccer team gets a "sellout". The often heard remark is that it's a public building, paid for with tax money so how can they keep people out of the top deck? A valid point...
The upper bowl was then opened for the 2004 WDF which yielded a crowd of about 55k. They then officially opened the upper bowl for all games going into the 2005 season. This I know because that was what convinced me to get ST's for the first time (I was one who always hated the lower bowl sightlines for seats in my price range, and couldn't wait for them to open the top). I was never able to renew them in the following years due to the price increases.
I do recall the "sellout" at the end of the 2003 season... an impressive turnaround considering the season opener that year barely drew over 20k.
It's hard to believe, but here we are 10 years later, and they seem to be have officially thrown in the towel on growing the crowds much past the 30k range with this latest renewal announcement. 30k is where we were 10 years ago. What the hell? I guess I'm from the low rent demographic that Braley doesn't see as his target market anyway. There was a thread on here, last year I think that quoted a telling interview with Braley where he basically indicated as much, saying ticket prices aren't too high now, they were too low before, which made them undesirable to the kind of people he wanted to sell to. WTF? That alone almost caused me to almost lose interest in this team.
I wouldn't expect it to change any time soon. There doesn't seem to be any urgency to do any better than league average attendances which rarely go past 30k. Skulsky's answer when asked about the flagging attendance seems to be that "hey, we're near the top of league averages each year, we're doing just fine" (in a recent Team 1040 interview). That may be true, but that is nothing less than mediocrity defined in one answer for you right there. Where's the vision to grow the fanbase, to grow the league? Is Braley really content just to merely keep the league afloat as it is? To have the smaller markets make the big markets attendance figures average out nicely?!
I would argue the rapid growth in attendance into the mid/upper 30s a few years ago (and subsequent fall) had more to do with the talents of a few exciting players (Simon, Clermont, the Printers/Dickenson controversy) than any grand marketing approach. Yes, the stability brought by Braley, Ackles and Buono had something to do with it, but on the marketing, ticket pricing, game presentation end of things, the Lions were always way too conservative.
If I hear another Lions/CFL pundit go on about how great the Lions have turned things around off the field and how back they are and how the lost generation is no more, I think I'll puke. No savvy media person whose checks aren't signed by the league or the team either directly or indirectly actually thinks that or says that anymore. A more sober assessment is that the league is relatively stable in its formerly weakest markets but there is a long way to go.
What I see, on the business side of things, is a team that is at best holding steady at "average" and at worst, out of touch and sliding back into irrelevance. Around this city, outside the dome I see a few more signs that the Lions even exist than I did a few years ago, but not that much more. Call me crazy but it seems like the vast majority of people around here, y'know "regular folks" are barely even aware this team exists.
The Waterboys initiative has had so much praise heaped on it, and it did help to shore up corporate support, but what is all the corporate support good for if the stadium remains half empty and therefore still looks "uncool" and yet somehow remains completely unaffordable to this media saturated generation?
We have a fanboy executive from the corporate media world who seems about as out of touch with the grassroots as can be. We have a team website that generates countless video clips and yet somehow still hasn't heard of Youtube (the Canucks channel has 24,000 subscribers and 8 million views). We have two 24/7 sports radio stations, that own the rights, but no regular scheduled show set aside to cover let alone hype the team. There's even this weird team called "Bell" that plays this bizarre other kind of football in the same stadium that has stolen the buzz right out from under them...
...Btw, Dan Russell is supposedly on a brief hiatus before bringing Sportstalk back on 650 AM. It sounds like he's planning to buy his own air time and sell the ads himself. I guess there were no takers at all for the show after he was dumped but he thinks it still has life.
I think I'm sensitive to what are effective efforts by the Whitecaps. I love the Lions. I hate soccer but have no real reason to want them to fail either business-wise or on the field. But, I think comparing the two will always be an apples/oranges concept.
For eg, the Whitecaps get this credit for such an amazing and energetic crowd. One guy I know is STH for Lions/Whitecaps and he agrees. But, football is a different sport where that energy needs to increase/wane due to offence/defence.
I hope to see a day when both the Lions and Whitecaps need to access the complete upper bowls.
in 1955' the Lions averaged 24,709 fans per game. So far the Lions are averaging 27,619 this season. Take that for what you will...
We are season's ticket holders and feel we get good value for money; especially when compared to other pro-sports in the Lower Mainland / BC. Even the Victoria Royals in our home town charge more for season's tickets. And based on our rather subjective observations when we travel over for afternoon games, there are a lot of fans from the island who are willing to make the trek over. If there were more games scheduled for times that allow fans to make it back to the island that same day, I think it would result in solid numbers from the island. Probably the same could be said for fans coming from the Fraser Valley and Okanagan.
I know the current logic says Vancouver fans don't like afternoon starts but the rest of the province does.
Cougar Country wrote:Signs of life on Youtube... this video going viral today
Hopefully this is not just a flash in the pan and they let the channel go dormant for months on end like usual.
Yeah, I already mentioned it here the day they posted it. It took only less than 10 hours for it to become the most viewed video on their channel. By yesterday afternoon it had more views than all their other vids combined. Now it's probably double this figure.
Would be nice if it caught on like some of those NFL memes (Who Dat?, Dirty Bird, etc) and then translated into ticket sales.
Among the more positive/interesting comments:
• Absolutely loved the shuffle- energized us in the stands and made us laugh and get our groove on for the rest of the game. Well done lads!
• Can't get enough, replay replay I <3 BC LIONS
• This would NEVER happen in the NFL. Goodell would fine the *frig* outta the team
• They gotta make this apart of every game now. Its addicting lol love it!!
• not only is BC great with football, they are great entertainers
• this is great. but its a 15 yard penalty in the nfl
• i don't even watch the CFL but this is my favorite team now
• Whoa Nillayyy, I'm going to CANADA!
• Awesome. Had me dancin and clappin in the stands. Go Lions!
• Loved this moment yesterday, definitely got the whole crowd going!
They should acknowledge this at the next game on the video board: play some/most/all of it with a message, something along the lines of "Thanks for making Lion Shuffle the number one viewed video on our youtube channel". Preferably at a crucial time when the crowd most needs to get pumped up. And then hopefully have some further similarly sticky content ready to upload.
Unfortunately our next two games are on the road and we don't play at home again until Oct 4 so by this time the buzz might have already cooled off. Especially if we play down to what has sadly become our usual level of road performance and fail to pick up at least one win — although this may not end up mattering so much what with Oct 4 also marking Geroy's return. But let's start winning on the road anyway!
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
Yes, I commented on this scene when I got back from the game on just how cool/fun/spontaneous it all was. Little did I know the club actually captured (some of) it and then had the foresight to post it to YouTube. Close to 50,000 views in 3 days. Yea....I'd say that's gone viral! In fact, it was getting about 1,000 views an hour earlier today. All great publicity for the club.
To the best of my knowledge, the most views involving the Lions occurred 3 years ago in which the Argos' Ronald Flemons fumbled a sure touchdown before reaching the endzone on a fumble. While that has 2MM views, it was a league video.
